pThere are up to 200,000 species of diatoms, each species of these algal cells bearing an ornate, amorphous silica glass shell. The silica is structured at 7 orders of magnitude size range, and is thus the most complex multiscalar solid structure known. Recent research is beginning to unravel how a single cell marshals chemical, physical, biochemical, genetic, and cytoskeletal processes to produce these single cell marvels. The field of diatom nanotechnology is advancing as this understanding matures.p pDiatoms have been actively studied over the recent 10-20 years with various modern equipment, experimental and computer simulation approaches, including molecular biology, fluorescenceb-bbased methods, electron, confocal and AFM microscopy. This has resulted in a huge amount of information but the key stages of their silica morphogenesis are still not clear. This is the time to reconsider and consolidate the work performed so far and to understand how we can go ahead.p pThe main objecti